BYUH women look to continue winning ways

Advertiser Staff

After making collegiate tennis history Monday, Brigham Young-Hawai'i will look to make a local impact in the third annual Kailua Racquet Club Women's Night Doubles tournament, which starts tonight.

Seasider seniors Petra Gaspar and Tagifano So'onalole Taosoga are seeded first, and teammates Tomoko Sukegawa and Amy Sun second. Gaspar and Taosoga won the inaugural Women's Night Doubles two years ago. Rosie Bareis and Ashlee Ashba, from California, won last year but are unable to defend their title.

Gaspar, Taosoga and Sukegawa are part of a senior class that went 132-1 for BYUH, which won its third NCAA Division II women's championship in four years Monday. The Seasider men also won, making BYU-Hawai'i the first school to hold both titles simultaneously.

Gaspar, from Hungary, was named the 2002 national Player of the Year and is a four-time All-American. She was ranked as high as No. 165 in the world five years ago. Taosoga is from Western Samoa, but graduated from high school in Fiji before becoming the top-ranked junior college player in the country.

The top-seeded team plays Hawai'i Pacific's Dora Holdarova and Summer Terry in the opening match tonight at 6. State high school doubles champions Heidi and Kim Kaloi are up next, at approximately 7:15, against Hana Krivonoskova and Ann Pangan. Kim and older sister Janalle were second last year.

Sukegawa and Sun play their first-round match tomorrow, at 7:15, against Leilani McGee and Judy Weitz. In tomorrow's 6 o'clock opener, Vanne Akagi-Bustin and Sylvia Schenck face HPU's Lani Matsunaga and Fleurette Miranti.

Semifinals are scheduled for Friday night, at 6 and 7:15. The third-place match (eight-game pro set) begins at 6 Saturday, with the championship scheduled for 7:15.

Pros are playing for a purse of more than $2,500.